Scripture Reflections for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year C, Lectionary 129
We can travel along with another person by bus or plane but that does not mean that we are following them. Jesus is asking us if we understand what we must give up to be true disciples. There is a cross we must carry but first we have to let go of earthly worries, including family. We have to accept the cost of following Christ in order to begin the journey to God.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Accounting • Community • Control • Conversion • Cost • Cross • Detachment • Disciple • Ecology • Environment • Faith • Family • Follow • Grace • Happiness • Hate • Holy Spirit • Justice • Kingdom • Knowledge • Labor • Love • Neighbor • Paul • Peace • Possessions • Priority • Reconciliation • Relationship • Sight • Sin • Suffering • Surrender • Understand • Union • Wisdom •
“So the call to holiness, the call to discipleship, the call to take up our cross and follow Jesus may for a handful of people involve doing great things for the Lord on the world stage. But for most of us it is the call to follow Jesus amidst the very ordinary things of life.”
“Jesus points us to prioritize relationships. Understanding the other helps us to see the impacts of our society's brokenness and then invites us to make choices that heal and transform. All hope is not lost.”
“It isn't that Jesus doesn't want people to enjoy beautiful things, but beautiful things can easily become a distraction from what is more important. And if those beautiful things are acquired through a system that hurts our brothers and sisters, that too is a problem.”
“As long as we are attached to the desire to be in control, we cannot attach ourselves to Jesus. That is why Jesus calls us to detachment. Not just from things, but from the illusion of being the master of our own lives.”
“he's teaching in riddles and parables and hyperboles that implicitly demand that the only reasonable explanation for how he could ask for such love is that he isn't just the Messiah, he isn't just the King of Israel, or a prophet, or the new Moses but he's the one God of Israel. He's the God of the Shema come in person.”
“Jesus loved his mother intensely. But he didn't cling to her, he didn't cling to her. And that's the difference.”
“Can we trust and persist in doing the little bit that is called of us? The bit that is entrusted to us? Can we trust the crowd, the community we are called to share this common call with?”
“Jesus invites us to prepare or to calculate the cost of our actions and to pause and to ask this question: 'is there a better way?'”
“Jesus is blunt, to the point. He explains that following him will not be easy. He points out that it is so difficult that we must walk the walk alone. Alone. Without our parents, without our siblings...even though discipleship is for the common good it is also an individual endeavor.”
“instead of lamenting when we find ourselves in unpleasant situations, as a people of faith, we are to ask God, 'now what do you want me to make out of this?'”
“we are called to lift up everybody because there is no one who is outside of God's care. There is no one who is outside of God's concern. So can there be anyone outside of ours? That's not a rhetorical question.”
“Jesus gonna say, 'I got your back. In every age I will be your refuge.' Do you believe that, Church?”
“to love our neighbor means that we actually have to know who our neighbor is and what they need, and what they want...It's a challenge that calls us to actively participate in our roles as human beings to make humanity the greatest cause.”
“Jesus points out that prudence and wisdom are needed to be real disciples of God. Through the use of prudence and wisdom disciples of the Lord can learn to put serving God first before all material things and even before people.”
